SHANGHAI, Mar. 13 (SMM) - Steelease sources report that Liuzhou Iron & Steel has suspended the other two wire rod production lines for two weeks after conducting maintenance at a rebar production line in early-to-mid February. That means three of the six rebar and wire rod production lines of Liuzhou Iron & Steel have been suspended. The steel mill will decided when to restart based on market prices. Due to raw material insufficiency and lower profits of building steel compared to hot rolling and medium steel plate, the production lines will not be restarted in the near term. But once profits are favorable, Liuzhou Iron & Steel will adjust production plans. Liuzhou Iron & Steel requests distributors to sell second grade rebar above RMB 3,800/mt, but rebar is actually unsellable now. Second grade rebar prices Nanning and Liuzhou are now RMB 3,720-3,740/mt, but transactions are still quiet.

Liuzhou Iron & Steel sold 20,000 mt of hot rolling this week, up 5,000 mt from the previous week. But the company also reported trader buying interest for hot rolling decreased despite high prices, so the sales department of the company advised to adjust ex-works prices, but has not been approved yet.